Bowel movements are an integral part of our system metabolism and, their slackening leads to constipation hampering our daily routine. You could help yourself with the list of 10 foods that cause constipation, so that you could explore avenues to buck up your sluggish bowels. Constipation occurs when the bowel movements aren’t regular to the limit of passing out hard-stools less than 3 times a week

What kind of foods causes constipation?

Lack of high-fiber generally leads to lack of motility in the bowels. Some foods may contain minerals or compounds, which interfere with the bowel activity. These include prepared protein-rich foods, dairy products, wheat products, and iron and calcium supplements. Protein-rich foods that go through some form of cooking form compounds such as beta carbolines, which are anesthetic by nature. These compounds slow down bowel movements. Wheat and dairy products contain opoids such as peptides, which are indigestible and have similar anesthetic effects on the bowels. Some of the peptides are difficult to decompose and beta carbolines have an inhibitory effect on the enzymes. Elevated calcium levels can also prove to be inhibitory for the colon, which can spell disaster for the bones as well.
Lets us look up the list of foods that cause constipation

•    Meat and poultry: Red meat especially that of pork and beef slows down the digestive process and hampers bowel movements. Meat and meat products stay on in the system for a longer period compared to their veggie counterparts and also tend to putrefy. Being high in protein, they cause hardened stools and slow bowel movements.
•    Potatoes: Potatoes are among other foods that cause constipation. Being highly starchy it has a binding effect that obstructs stool-passage therefore potato is a food to avoid if you want to prevent constipation.
•    Tofu, cheese : Being high in protein and a prepared protein food, both tofu and cheese can slacken the bowels because of the formation of beta carbolines or peptides.
•    Pizzas: Loads of bread ingredients and cheese and the combination is deadly if you want to prevent constipation, pizzas are surely a no-no.
•    Milk: Milk contains opoids and high in calcium, which have been observed to have an inhibitory effect on bowel movements.
•    Yogurt: Yogurt is enriched with the friendly bacteria lactobacillus acidophilus which aids in digestion but it is one of the foods that cause constipation because of the high calcium levels in it.
•    Wheat Breads : Wheat is again a prepared protein-acious food causing constipation and so are wheat products in the way of bread and other bakes.
•    Pasta : Being a refined product made from white flour, the food paste formed from pasta is not very digestive system-friendly as they tend to lodge in the colon for a longer period of time, which is one of the reasons pasta should be avoided
•    Ice creams: High in refined sugar, which tends to destroy some of the crucial vitamins and minerals that can aid in bowel movements, ice cream is one of the foods that cause constipation.
•    Sugar-doused bakes: Cookies, pies, pastries high in sugar can crash down the energy levels of the body slackening the overall metabolic rate, bringing down the rate of digestion as well, which means the rate of excretion of wastes as well.
Some of the above mentioned foods that cause constipation cannot be avoided all together because they provide vital nutrients to the body as well (yogurt, cheese, milk etc). So enrich your diet with fiber and supplement it with large quantities of water so that the good is absorbed by the body, the bad dissolved with the ugly thrown out.
Photo courtesy: natural-remedies-healthy-lifestyle.com